How to search all your ChatGPT and Claude chats in one place

Updated October 26, 2026 · 5-minute read

ChatGPT and Claude each search only their own chats, so to search both in one place you need a tool that saves chats from both sites into one index, like the ConvoShelf Chrome extension. If you only use one AI, its built-in search is often enough, and this page explains what each one covers.

Disclosure: ConvoShelf is our product. The built-in searches below are free and worth trying first.

What ChatGPT's search covers

According to OpenAI's help center, ChatGPT's sidebar search is on every plan, on the web and in the iOS and Android apps. On the web you can open it with Ctrl+K on Windows or Cmd+K on a Mac. It finds chats, projects, images and documents in your account or current workspace, and it doesn't search the web.

It can match words in a chat's title or messages.
Archived chats show up in results. Deleted chats don't.
Locked chats don't appear in regular search. You find them under Projects, then Locked chats, with your PIN.
An old chat that has dropped out of the sidebar isn't necessarily gone. Search for a phrase from it.

What Claude's search covers

Claude has a chat list in the sidebar, and on paid plans (Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise) you can also ask Claude to search your past chats in a conversation. Anthropic's help center sets the scope of that search:

A search from outside a project covers all your chats outside projects.
A search from inside a project only covers that project's chats.
Incognito chats are never searched.
You can turn it off in Settings, under Your Claude (Memory in the older layout).

Free Claude accounts don't get this search-and-reference feature.

Why neither can search the other

Each search runs on its own company's servers against its own account. ChatGPT has no access to your Claude history, and Claude has none to ChatGPT. If you researched something in Claude and wrote it up in ChatGPT, you have to remember which site you used and search them one at a time.

The data exports don't fix this on their own. Claude's data export runs from Settings, then Privacy, on the web or Claude Desktop, and arrives as an emailed download link that expires after 24 hours. ChatGPT's account export also arrives by email. You get files, not a search box, and the copy is out of date as soon as you start a new chat.

How ConvoShelf searches both

ConvoShelf is a Chrome extension that runs on chatgpt.com, claude.ai, gemini.google.com and grok.com. We read our own code before writing this section, so here is exactly how its search works:

What gets indexed. When you open a chat, ConvoShelf saves its title and message text to your browser. It re-reads the chat after you send a message so long answers are caught. Chats you only see in the sidebar are saved by title until you open them.
How matching works. Every word you type has to appear in the chat's title or text. Title matches rank higher, and pinned chats get a small boost. You see up to 50 results, each with a snippet around the first match.
Limits. It keeps up to 3,000 chats. Past that, it drops the chats you opened longest ago that aren't in a folder. Chats in folders are never dropped. For very long chats it keeps the most recent 60,000 characters of text.
Where it's stored. Everything stays in Chrome's local storage. There is no ConvoShelf account and no server.

Press Alt+Shift+F on any of the four sites to open search, or Alt+Shift+S to open the panel. Search is on the free plan. Pro, $4.99 once, adds filters by AI, folder, tag and date.

The catch is that ConvoShelf can only search chats it has seen. Chats from before you installed it aren't searchable until you open each one once. If you have years of history, start with the chats you know you'll need again.

For setting up folders alongside search, see how to organize your ChatGPT chats. If you want a copy of your Claude history too, read how to back up Claude chats before a suspension.

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FAQ

Can ChatGPT search my Claude chats?

No. ChatGPT's sidebar search covers your ChatGPT account or workspace: chats, projects, images and files. Claude's chat search covers Claude. Neither can see the other's history.

Does ChatGPT search the words inside a chat or only titles?

OpenAI's help center says search can match words in a chat's title or messages. Archived chats show up in results, deleted chats don't, and locked chats only show under Projects, Locked chats.

Can I search old Claude chats on the free plan?

Asking Claude to search and reference past chats is for paid plans only: Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. On those plans, a search from inside a project stays in that project, and a search outside projects covers your chats outside projects.

Does ConvoShelf search chats I haven't opened?

It indexes the words of a chat when you open it with ConvoShelf installed. Chats you only see in the sidebar are saved by title. Open an old chat once and its text becomes searchable.

Is ConvoShelf search free?

Yes. Full-text search across all four AIs is on the free plan. Pro, $4.99 once, adds filters by AI, folder, tag and date.